In copending applications Ser. No. 09/343,104 (filed Jun. 29, 1999), and Ser. No. 09/292,569 (filed Apr. 15, 1999; now abandoned in favor of continuing application Ser. No. 10/379,393), the present assignee details a variety of technologies that employ optical data sensing to invoke various communication or control functions. The present specification builds on those earlier applications, detailing additional novel technologies and systems.
For example, according to one aspect of the present invention, a wireless telephony device is equipped with an optical image sensor, and a lens for imaging an object onto the sensor. The optical sensor permits a variety of useful finctionality, including decoding of bar codes, watermarks, etc., from objects imaged by the sensor.
One application of such a device is to interact with a remote computer system using data decoded from a bar code or watermark. For example, the device can be used to scan image data from an item depicted in a catalog, and then to transmit an order for the item from the catalog's on-line web store—using the associated digital data decoded from the image to identify the item desired.
The foregoing and additional features and advantages of the present technology will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description.